VISUAL PERSUASIVE ESSAY Guide to Creating a Visual Essay

Table of Contents Literary Analysis 1 Thesis Statements 2 Topic Sentences 3 Evidence 4 Parenthetical Citations 5 Analysis 6 Effective Intros and Conclusions 7 Imbedding Quotes 8 Taboo Words 9 MLA Format 10 Brainstorming your paragraphs 11 Analysis (TKAM) 12 Questions to ask while researching 13 Internet sources and Search Engines 14 Powerful Search Engines and the “Invisible Web” 15 Other places to search and Online References 16 Online Libraries, Newspapers, and Articles 17 Persuasive thesis statements 18 Persuasive Topic Sentences 19 Persuasive Evidence 20

First Step Persuasive thesis statements reflect what you are arguing. If you were a defense lawyer, this would be what you are fighting for: “He is innocent”  Creating a persuasive thesis:  Come up with what you want to argue for your visual essay  Design a thesis that is specific and creates an argument  Use persuasive words like should, must, needs to, etc. to craft your argument.  Do not waver, your argument can have no holes

Examples Check to make sure the thesis statements are specific, argumentative, and strong.  Abortion should be illegal in the United States of America because it is dangerous, it is technically killing a human being, and it goes against Christian ideals.  O.J. Simpson is guilty of killing Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown and was unjustly let free during his murder trial.  Drilling in Alaska must be made illegal because of the previous destruction caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Persuasive Topic Sentences If you were a defense lawyer, these would be your reasons why he/she is innocent: Alibi No just reason  Your persuasive topic sentences must:  Directly connect to your thesis and act like reasons to prove your thesis  Each answer the question “why”?  Be specific

Examples Make sure these topic sentences are specific, support the thesis, and answer the question “why”  Thesis  Drilling in Alaska must be made illegal because of the previous destruction caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Topic Sentences  The United States cannot allow drilling to occur in Alaska because modern drilling practices still cannot guarantee there would not be any spillage.  Drilling in Alaska must also be banned because Alaska contains wildlife found only in that region and we must work to protect these animals.  It must be made illegal to drill in Alaska because environmentalists are still cleaning up the mess and destruction caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill and cannot afford to do damage control on yet another spill.

Practice Make sure to meet the T.S. requirements!  Write three topic sentences to support the thesis:  Fast food restaurants should not be forced to post calorie counts for all items on the menu. OR  Homework should not be given to high school students.

Persuasive Evidence If you were a defense lawyer your evidence would be: DNA samples Eye witnesses Reports Quotes Testimonies  Persuasive evidence works to support your T.S.  Do not choose “great” evidence that does not connect to the T.S.  Both pieces of evidence must be different, but still support the same argument  In other words, do not be repetitive.  When introducing your evidence, you must authorize it- tell who said it or where you got the quote and say why it is valid

Examples Make sure the evidence connects to the T.S., offers different information, and authorizes the source/author you collected it from.  Thesis  Drilling in Alaska must be made illegal because of the previous destruction caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Topic Sentences  The United States cannot allow drilling to occur in Alaska because modern drilling practices still cannot guarantee there would not be any spillage.  Evidence  Sam Warner, an environmental specialist currently working in Alaska cleaning up the Exxon Valdez oil spill states, “Look what occurred off the coast of Mexico. Oil companies cannot fully guarantee that another tragic oil spill will not occur at any point of their drilling” (Warner).  The Environmental Research center located in Portland, Oregon has done extensive research in this field and claims that “oil rigs that pump on a consistent basis have a ten percent chance of failure at any given moment” (“Environmental Research Clinic”).

Work on your own…  Develop a strong thesis statement for your topic that persuades the audience to believe your side.  Develop three topic sentences supporting your evidence that directly align with your thesis.

Table of Contents  Visual essay analysis  Images for visual essay

Analysis  You are not to write your analysis on your visual essay; instead, write it on flashcards OR type it on regular size paper in large font and present it to the class  In your analysis, use your evidence to persuade your audience to side with you.  Use persuasive words like should, must, need, will, do…  You may include a “call to action”  Do not use “I”, “you”, or “me”- you may use “us” or “we” as a universal identity  Therefore, it is important that we (Californians) help contribute to local businesses in order to stimulate the economy keep family-owned companies alive.

Example T.S.- The United States cannot allow drilling to occur in Alaska because modern drilling practices still cannot guarantee there would not be any spillage. Evidence on slide- Sam Warner, an environmental specialist currently working in Alaska cleaning up the Exxon Valdez oil spill states, “Look what occurred off the coast of Mexico. Oil companies cannot fully guarantee that another tragic oil spill will not occur at any point of their drilling” (Warner). Analysis bullet points- Because spillage has happened recently, it is clear that scientists have not developed any full-proof methods to prevent another destructive oil spill from occurring. Evidence on slide- Furthermore, the Environmental Research center located in Portland, Oregon has done extensive research in this field and claims that “oil rigs that pump on a consistent basis have a ten percent chance of failure at any given moment” (“Environmental Research Clinic”). Analysis bullet points- It is apparent that we are taking a risk by allowing corporations to drill in Alaska. The government must explicitly make it clear to the general population that we may be risking another destructive pollution incident if we allow these practices to occur. Until the science behind oil drilling guarantees no spillage, we need to make sure no more drilling occurs in Alaska.

Images Images should add to, not detract from your argument  Choose images that support your argument:  Images that evoke an emotional response will make your audience side with you  Graphs, charts, and documents will make your audience have a rational response  Crime scene photos, maps, and location photos will make your argument more believable and sound for the audience

Examples

Presenting with your Images  Talk about your images, point to specifics in your images using a white sheet of paper, and use them as persuasive tools in your speech  Do not show images without discussing them  Chose a background color or image to enhance your presentation  If you chose an image as a background, make sure we can still read your writing

Sample Presentation Notes  Thesis  Drilling in Alaska must be made illegal because of the previous destruction caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Topic Sentence  The United States cannot allow drilling to occur in Alaska because modern drilling practices still cannot guarantee there would not be any spillage.  Evidence  Sam Warner, an environmental specialist currently working in Alaska cleaning up the Exxon Valdez oil spill states, “Look what occurred off the coast of Mexico. Oil companies cannot fully guarantee that another tragic oil spill will not occur at any point of their drilling” (Warner).  Image:  This picture is one of the thousands of animals who were impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  It takes, on average, 1 hour to clean a single animal  70% of animal, like this one, die before they are able to be cleaned  This shows the damage caused by a spillage

 Analysis:  Because spillage has happened recently, it is clear that scientists have not developed any full-proof methods to prevent another destructive oil spill from occurring.  Evidence  The Environmental Research center located in Portland, Oregon has done extensive research in this field and claims that “oil rigs that pump on a consistent basis have a ten percent chance of failure at any given moment” (“Environmental Research Clinic”).  Image  This image shows the Mexico oil rig and oil spilling out of it  It is apparent how much oil can spill out only minutes after the spillage began  Analysis It is apparent that we are taking a risk by allowing corporations to drill in Alaska. The government must explicitly make it clear to the general population that we may be risking another destructive pollution incident if we allow these practices to occur. Until the science behind oil drilling guarantees no spillage, we need to make sure no more drilling occurs in Alaska.